E-commerce

Content personalization: why it’s critical and how to get started
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What’s the one thing that’s most profoundly changed shopping, among other consumer experiences in the modern era? The answer is undoubtedly personalization. If you’re curious about how content personalization works with potential customers and whether it could be the right digital marketing strategy for your business, here’s a look at what’s involved.

What is content personalization?

Personalization is using data on people’s web browsing behavior and purchase history — typically in an ecommerce setting — to create relevant content for them. You can also collect details such as demographics (for example, age and location) and content such as answers to a quiz they filled out on your site. When executed well, personalization makes people feel valued and intrigued by the possibilities tailored just for them and results in a satisfying user experience.

The impact of personalized content — also known as dynamic content — has been definitive from the start, and now with the advent of machine learning, LLMs, and the impact AI has on personalization, the personalized experience is only becoming more ubiquitous. AI has improved optimization by being able to accurately identify what a consumer may want to buy next and make other predictions.

Tailoring content to individuals’ preferences, whether on the web, in a social media feed, or in SMS messaging or email, is working quite well for consumers; so much so that shoppers fully expect personalized content. In fact, a majority of consumers admit that they’re frustrated if a website experience isn’t personalized. According to Twilio, 49% of consumers are likely to become repeat buyers after a personalized shopping experience.

Personalizing content, then, is widely considered a no-brainer marketing strategy if you want higher conversion and strong business growth. If your business hasn’t yet waded into the personalization pool, here’s what to know about using targeted content to win prospective customers and keep them coming back.

Why is content personalization critical?

The simple answer is that the right personalization strategy can dramatically improve the customer experience and lead to significantly higher profit. By winning over potential buyers with content that’s all about meeting their needs and satisfying their desires, you stand a good chance of not only improving your bottom line initially but also strengthening relationships with them, as they’re likely to want to keep coming back whenever they need more.

Types of content personalization

“Personalization” used to amount to simple gestures such as inserting a consumer’s name in the subject line of an email. Now, companies can personalize in a multitude of sophisticated ways, both on websites, in elements such as call-to-action text, and elsewhere, like in retargeted ads on social media. How does content personalization enhance the customer experience (including in mobile apps), improve customer satisfaction, and drive results? Here are a few prominent content marketing methods being used to curate content that appeals to individual customers:

Your home page

Content personalization is welcoming shoppers and dynamically displaying products and categories on the home page that align with what they looked at on their last visit. For a consumer, there’s nothing like being greeted by name when they arrive, with website content that looks like — and with copy that sounds like — it was designed just for them. With that kind of experience, a shopper can easily get lost in exploring the attractive options presented for them.

Hero images

To further embellish the personalized content, you can use a photo or image that aligns with the visitor’s data, such as their geographical area or a category they’ve recently browsed.

Landing pages

If someone clicks on an ad or email link to go to your site, does the landing page headline reflect the content in the ad? If it does, that’s a great way to keep the momentum going. On any page, you can tailor the headline to the visitor’s needs based on what you know about them, and you can do it dynamically, customizing it to reflect the content of clickable ads.

You can also personalize a landing page broadly, such as for a particular buyer persona. This practice is known to generate interest from people who feel an emotional connection because they belong to the target group.

Product and service recommendations

Mentioning relevant product and service recommendations, originally popularized by Amazon, is one of the most common ways to personalize web content. When a prospective customer sees “Recommended for you” on an ecommerce site, they immediately know they could save time by starting with the curated suggestions in front of them. They might very well turn their attention to checking out the recommended categories and considering any offers.

Where do you get the customer data to start generating enticing personalized recommendations? Someone’s earlier website searches and page views are key, of course. The beauty of a recommendations algorithm is that you can also continue to refine your user data as shoppers keep browsing, then serve up even more accurately targeted recommendations.

Calls to action

What better way to strengthen a call to action (CTA) than to personalize it? This is done by programming and labeling buttons and prompts based on site visitor behavior. For example, to capture the interest of someone surfing a travel site and looking at airfare to Hawaii, a CTA button could read “Find your Hawaii escape”.

Retargeted ads

How can you follow up with shoppers who’ve been on your site but didn’t convert while they were there? Retargeting ads in your search engine content or on social media is a promising way. Even if a prospective customer is aware that their browsing information is being collected, these timely ads can be very effective at getting shoppers to complete transactions.

Marketing email

EMARKETER confirms that “it’s no longer enough to call an email ‘personalized’ just because it includes the recipient’s first name. Consumers want content that’s catered to them and knows their patterns and history.” If you can use email marketing automation to give people enough of the right AI-generated content at the right moment along their shopping journey, offering discounts or another reason to browse your site. You can also follow up in email by referring to any personalized material already presented on your site or in ads.

Website personalization examples

Online retailers who’ve been succeeding with content personalization include:

Walgreens

Walgreens implemented AI-aided search personalization across its shopping channels with the goal of providing a seamless customer experience. The company needed to meet the growing demand for the option of buying online, picking up in store (BOPIS).

According to Director of Digital Experience Shelby Sharp, Walgreens implemented AI re-ranking and personalization, which use customer patterns to improve the customer experience in real time. “Our search algorithm is using feedback from our customers — what they are clicking on, what they are buying — to promote those items to the top of our results,” she says.

The result of this investment in the Walgreens’ web experience has been paying off: they’ve seen significant improvements in several  KPIs, including increases in search conversion, revenue from search, and the click-through rate.

Starbucks

Starbucks uses AI to send personalized offers, phrasing them to appeal to particular customers. Like other retailers with an online presence, the company bases personalization on customers’ past purchases as well as habits of similar buyers. Starbucks has improved engagement across its digital channels, with mobile orders and pay topping 30% of its transactions for a recent quarter.

Huckberry

Recognizing the prospective financial gains possible with website personalization, men’s online apparel retailer Huckberry set out to provide a unique experience for its site visitors. Their goal: use data analytics to build personalization that would help win over shoppers. With Algolia aboard, they met that goal, realizing a 9.4% increase in website revenue related to AI-driven personalization.

Vape Superstore

UK-based Vape Superstore can’t advertise traditionally, so its marketers focus on engaging with consumers on a personal level and providing website visitors with an excellent customer journey that includes great search. The company has improved its search relevance by implementing personalization, along with search recommendations and re-ranking. Within six weeks of deploying Algolia, the site’s conversions increased by 35% above the previous platform’s record, and the average order value grew by 5%.

How to implement content personalization

What’s involved in adding content personalization functionality to your website? Here’s how the process typically works.

  1. Collect data points related to user behavior. Gather both implicit material (for example, browsing history, loyalty program data, search queries, and clicks) and explicit (for example, from details provided by shoppers filling out questionnaires).
  2. Be compliant with data privacy laws by asking for user acceptance of your data collection practices and letting site visitors know their data will be used to create tailored experiences.
  3. Segment your customers according to their shopping behavioral data and buying preferences. You can group them, for example, based on demographics (such as age), behavior (such as browsing patterns), and psychographics (such as interests).
  4. Integrate your personalization tools with your existing systems, whether that means adapting your APIs or connecting it to work seamlessly with a CMS or CRM platform.
  5. Apply algorithms and machine-learning techniques to dynamically personalize and deliver content experiences that are likely to resonate with individuals and result in higher customer loyalty.
  6. A/B test versions of your content and analyze your customer behavior.
  7. Optimize as needed to provide continually relevant personalized search results, landing-page layouts, product and service recommendations, and personalized email.
  8. Continually monitor your personalization activity: keep tabs on your engagement metrics, customer satisfaction scores, and conversion rates.

Improve your conversion with personalized search

Looking to start personalizing content and getting great results? You’re not alone: according to our 2024 B2C Ecommerce Site Search Trends survey, 70% of ecommerce businesses said personalization will be integral or a large part of their ecommerce strategy in the next year.

Check out how easy it is to set up search personalization efforts with Algolia, which learns about your customers’ preferences and then, when they search or browse, more heavily weights products that match their preferences. Our enterprise customers who’ve adopted personalized search have seen their conversion increase by up to 50%. We look forward to helping you assess your next steps when you’re ready!

About the authorJon Silvers

Jon Silvers

Director, Digital Marketing

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